Some quick stuff about comics

I'll be heading over to Nuclear Comics this coming Friday, so I'll be playing catch-up with other reviewers. In the meantime, I just had some comments about some books I'm currently reading.

As you can tell from this site I'm a fan of westerns in most forms. I love western themed movies, comics, television programs and even the occasional western novel. It shouldn't be a surprise to find that I finally got around to picking up the current LONE RANGER series being published by Dynamite Entertainment.

Writer Brett Matthews and artist Sergio Cariello begin with the classic 'origin' story of how Texas Rangers John & Dan Reid along with their fellow rangers are ambushed by outlaws. John survives and aided by Tonto (who he knew when he was younger), takes up the masked identity for which he became famous. Matthews introduces us to the Reid and their widower father, when John was only a boy. In this version of the story, the elder Reid was already Ranger and his sons followed in his footsteps. While Dan stayed with his father, the young John was sent off to college, returning years later to rejoin his brother and father on that fateful outing.

I'm jumping in late on this title, so I don't know where Matthew is going to go after the origin tale. I enjoyed the first issue, and will probably pick up at least a couple more to see how this turns out before adding the book to my "pull list" at the shop.

Again, I've only read the first issue but I wanted to recommend the Marvel book, THE TWELVE. Written by J. Michael Straczynski with pencils by Chris Weston, the series tells the story of a group of masked heroes (some super others not) that had been ambushed at the end of WWII and kept frozen until discovered in the 21st century. Awoken by the American military they are offered a deal, under the new laws instituted in the Marvel Universe in the series CIVIL WAR, allowing them to use their powers and abilities if the will work for the government. The heroes used all appear to be third-string or just plain forgotten characters that appeared in various titles published by then Atlas comics. I'll have more to say on this probably after I read the second issue.